In a sun-scorched neighbourhood outside
Havana, a sunburnt youth presses the "play" button on an
old, outdated cassette player culminating in a voice that
resonates in the angry rap of Tupac Shakur. It blasts from the
boom box at the feet of several young black men, abruptly ending
the mid-afternoon tranquility of several older residents.

Seemingly oblivious to the havoc they
are now creating, the group is propped casually against a decaying
brick wall, absolutely immersed in the rebellious tune. An air of
defiance is suddenly apparent as the older residents
unsuccessfully attempt to intervene. Knowing when they're beaten,
they shake their heads and wonder why these kids are wasting their
time with such rubbish.

Admittedly, Tupac's life was never
exactly peaches and cream. In fact it could be said that life for
the ever-controversial rapper was a constant struggle. And this
persona, possibly created by his rough, no-nonsense upbringing is
more than reflected in his music, movies and poetry. When kids
first encounter songs like "California Love" or the
infamous "Hit Em Up", you can almost hear them saying:
"Hey! This is some crazy shit, I love this guy!" But if they (and others) care to look beyond
the "thug" image and that non-stop running foul mouth,
they might just discover that this artist had a lot more to say
than "nigga" and "muthafucka."

Admittedly, Tupac's life was never
exactly peaches and cream. In fact it could be said that life for
the ever-controversial rapper was a constant struggle. And this
persona, possibly created by his rough, no-nonsense upbringing is
more than reflected in his music, movies and poetry. When kids
first encounter songs like "California Love" or the
infamous "Hit Em Up", you can almost hear them saying:
"Hey! This is some crazy shit, I love this guy!" But if they (and others) care to look beyond
the "thug" image and that non-stop running foul mouth,
they might just discover that this artist had a lot more to say
than "nigga" and "muthafucka."

Tupac's music was as he put it: real.
Tupac himself was a self-proclaimed "realist." And
although this may seem like arrogance, before you judge him, you
must at least be made aware of the man's remarkable life. When you
consider personally enduring being shot five times and self
inducing paralysis so that you didn't throw your intestines up,
while fighting for your life in hospital and on the very same day
being sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a crime that
you would later be acquitted of, then sometimes a little ill
feeling towards certain individuals can be, if not tolerated, then
at least understood. Or alternatively, being beaten beyond
recognition (and having a stolen gun being shoved in your face)
after simply trying to help another (black) motorist being
harassed by two racist policeman who were heavily under the
influence of both marijuana and alcohol, a little ill feeling
towards the law might also just be able to be fathomed.

Tupac's music was so enticing because it
was (and please forgive the cliche) straight from the heart. It
was articulate, it was controversial, but most importantly, like
him, it was the truth - plain and simple. In his music he said
what everyone else was thinking but didn't have the courage to say
- therefore he was controversial. And although he was only
exercising his freedom of speech (something we all have the right
to do), he unknowingly tapped into an entire generation of ill
feelings. Kids who were fed up with racism, the lies of their
government or just their own unfair lives found Tupac's music an
escape and sometimes were inspired by it.

Consequently he became the ideal target
for the problems of Black America, which, ironically, he was
desperately trying to improve.

They wonder, as many people do: why are
these kids listening to this music What entices them, let alone
millions of others around the world into listening to what this
man has to say?

Surely Tupac's main attraction is his
"rebel" reputation right? Born in prison in the Bronx,
New York, 1971, son of a Black Panther, he must have been a Rap
record label's dream come true. He cares for no one but himself.
He's a "bad ass muthafucka" right? Wrong.

Tupac's music was so enticing because it
was (and please forgive the cliche) straight from the heart. It
was articulate, it was controversial, but most importantly, like
him, it was the truth - plain and simple. In his music he said
what everyone else was thinking but didn't have the courage to say
- therefore he was controversial. And although he was only
exercising his freedom of speech (something we all have the right
to do), he unknowingly tapped into an entire generation of ill
feelings. Kids who were fed up with racism, the lies of their
government or just their own unfair lives found Tupac's music an
escape and sometimes were inspired by it.

Consequently he became the ideal target
for the problems of Black America, which, ironically, he was
desperately trying to improve.

Admittedly, Tupac didn't exactly change
the world. But lyrics such as: "And they say it's the White man I
should fear, but it's my own kind doing all the killing here",
along with "Somebody wake me, I'm dreamin’,
I started as a seed of semen, swimming upstream, planted in the
womb while screaming, on the top was my pops, my momma screaming
stop, from a single drop, this is what they got", kind of make you stop and think. They
may even force you to snatch a quick, unpleasant look at life on
the other side of the tracks.

While Ms Brittany Spears sings about
sunsets and young love, 2pac (one of his many aliases) raps about
a part of society that most of us would rather sweep under the
carpet of complacency. The other world. His
world. Like the deserts of Ethiopia where not everyone gets fed. A
place where life isn't exactly fair. A life full of, as Tupac
would call it - reality.

A perfect example of this is one of
Tupac's first ever songs. "Brenda's Got a Baby" is a
tragic, but unfortunately all-too-realistic tale of a
thirteen-year old named Brenda. In Tupac's sorrowful tale, Brenda
falls pregnant to her older cousin, hides the pregnancy from her
family, who, as Tupac states
"couldn't really care to see, or give a damn if she went out
and had a church of kids, as long as when the check came they got
first dibs."

With
no-one to turn to, Brenda has the baby on the bathroom floor and
after being kicked out by her uncaring family, turns to
prostitution as a means of keeping herself and her newly born
infant alive. As Tupac rather melodically states:
"she thinks that she'll be with him forever and dreams of a
world with the two of them all together, whatever. He left her and
she had the baby solo, she had it on the bathroom floor and didn't
know so. She didn't know what to throw away and what to keep. She
wrapped the baby up and threw him in a trash heap. I guess she
thought she'd get away, wouldn't hear the cries, but she didn't
realise how much the little baby had her eyes." The
amount of passion and stark reality in those lyrics would have
been the only sexual education that thousands of young, black
girls would have ever received.

Although according to former
Vice-President Dan Quayle, Tupac's music "had
no place in American society." Quayle had given his
reasons for this statement saying that it was due to the lyrics of
the songs. But one can be forgiven for asking which lyrics in
particular? Maybe the lyrics disliked so much by the American
Government were possibly such questions as: "you
know it's funny when it rains and pours, you've got money for wars
but can't you feed the poor?" The fact that America has the highest
homeless rate in the world along with the by far the largest
budget for weaponry and defence, along with Tupac's
thought-provoking lyrics might even make an individual stop and
think about the actions and ethics of their government - if only
for a second...

While always thought-provoking,
unfortunately, not all of 2pac's lyrics are what most
self-respecting individuals would call "uplifting." Some
of his songs, such as the notorious "Hit Em Up"
(containing 124 swear words) are angry songs that border on
vicious. The media and the government along with many others focus
on this and turn Tupac into a convenient scapegoat who must
shoulder the blame for every ghetto evil, every shooting, every
drug deal and every assault. Why? Because it's a hell of a lot
easier to blame all of your problems on one loud-mouthed
individual than to actually try and fix them yourselves. One must
understand that the same "thug" who wrote the vicious
"Hit Em Up" was the same individual who upon receiving a
letter from the parents of a dying boy saying that their child's
last wish was to possibly meet him, instantly flew to his side
Maryland, and after the boy passed away, renamed his publishing
company Joshua's Dream (in the child's memory) even though it
meant that he lost millions of dollars in sponsorship and naming
rights.

If Tupac's music is seen as violent, it
is only because his music is like a mirror that is simply
reflecting that violence back to us. The world's problems are not
his fault. Or as he himself puts it "but
if you did you couldn't take it. But don't blame me, I was given
this world, I didn't make it!"

So next time you hear the words Tupac
Shakur, don't think of a "gangsta rapper" who caused all
sorts of trouble with his big mouth, because it was that "big
mouth" that spoke for all of those without a voice. It was
that "big mouth" who explained the cruelty of racism and
it was that "big mouth" that was only a tool for
communicating the anger, joy, confusion and pain of an entire
generation of people.

Listen to him, appreciate him, but most
of all, try to understand him.